RE:Princess Karaoke
by Pantharya
Summary: Worlds made of data weren't exactly unusual, but this one in particular had a distinct potential quite unlike the rest. The precise nature of this potential varied from member to member, but the Organization had its eyes on it nontheless.
1. Chapter 1

Zexion yawned.

He did not approve of being awake so early, not even a little bit, but Demyx had stumbled his way into a new world and left him little choice in the matter. The world showed remarkable promise really, but even so, it was deplorable that Demyx couldn't have left his spontaneous discoveries to a more reasonable hour.

Despite his complaints, Zexion was there, hunched over the impressively white keyboard in his full black coat. He supposed it didn't really matter which reason it was that kept him here, which was just as well really; a new world could always wait till morning, yet the opportunity to help Demyx out of a dire situation didn't come around every day. Every second day perhaps, but definitely not _every_ day. Not that there was any sentimentality in that beyond a shared connection to the Organization. No, of course not. Suggesting otherwise would be ludicrous.

Zexion yawned again, leaning back in the chair and wishing for all the world that he had thought to bring a pillow with him. His eyelids were lead, with eyes themselves that felt grainy, and he was left with the distinct impression that all the problems of the world would be solved if he just shut them right there and then. To say that it was 'tempting' would be an understatement on a colossal scale, but he wouldn't do Demyx any good by falling asleep on him. He didn't know why he cared so much anyway – in the figurative sense of course. One world was just like any other, and being part of the initial recon was hardly necessary in the long run. Perhaps it would be wiser to find someone else to take over while he retreated back to his room. Unfortunately, that particular plan would entail wandering the halls of the Castle That Never Was and risk running into other equally sleep-deprived members – which wouldn't be so bad if certain other members of the Organization weren't especially painful to deal with. The Organization was what held them together, true, but that didn't mean he had previously enjoyed running into Larxene in the early hours of the morning. He had no idea what she was doing up at this time, but questions usually resulted in threats of swift death. Zexion wasn't too big on those.

He stared at the screen blankly, enjoying the all too-brief moment in-between blinks where his eyes were actually shut. It was a ridiculously sized screen really, far too big to be efficient to anyone of any size ever. The small room was filled with all sort of computerised apparatus, all following the same theme of being big, white, and oddly shaped. It didn't make a lot of logical sense, unless it had just been done to match the colour of the walls themselves. They were clearly white too, with large panels given over to sections of wires and well organised miscellany. The entire castle interior looked like that; white decor with seemingly important computerised sections spreading over every section of visible wall. For all Zexion knew they were just as important as they seemed, it was hardly your average castle after all. Glass walkways hung over immeasurable depths. Immense carved windows pierced out into the ever dark and clouded sky. Elaborately designed structures and sculptures decorated phenomenally sized rooms - all coloured a pleasant mix of white and grey, and all hanging eternally in the sky above the dark city below. Many of the immense rooms seemed to hold no purpose whatsoever, and this was ignoring the fact that the castle was of a mind-blowing size and housed merely thirteen people. It was almost a puzzle, but Zexion had long since put it all down to Xemnas' interpretation of 'nothingness' being 'nothingness that looked good.' To each his own, he supposed, and Xemnas provided everything they could ever need in their pseudo-non-existence, so there was never really anything to complain about. Not unless someone was mortally offended by the idea of superfluous castle architecture anyway, and so far that category only housed Roxas, who spent a good deal more time than he admitted to anyone stumbling in lost confusion down the endless corridors. More than once Zexion had spotted him trying to draw maps on the back of his hand. It more than explained why he only ever got through one simple mission per day at best.

The screen beeped a few times, jolting Zexion out of his line of thought. Stifling a further yawn with his hand, he leaned in close and read. The signal hadn't quite been located yet, but from the signature it left it was clear that Demyx was in some kind of 'Digital World' - a world made entirely of data it seemed. Zexion supposed he shouldn't have found that so surprising, considering that Xemnas had created one of those himself in Hollow Bastion, but it still did. The idea of data forming a consciously functioning world of its own free will was really quite remarkable.

More information was appearing on screen. Apparently the source of the world's existence was the fixation of information waves over a sizeable distance, all coming together and creating a reflection of the world they stemmed from. So technology had made this world unknowingly? Fascinating. It would definitely explain how Demyx had screamed out of his alarm clock in the middle of the night. It took a great deal of willpower not to curse at Demyx mentally for that. He settled for scowling, on the inside. Retribution could be had once Demyx was safely out of harm's way again. Perhaps a larger and considerably louder alarm clock hidden under Demyx's bed would do the trick. Or an early morning encounter with Larxene. Or both. Both was always good.

Zexion's reverie was shattered as a voice tore through his sleep deprived mind.

"HELLO?"

The sound screamed through his ears, making Zexion throw his hands over the speakers in panic. Cringing visibly, he looked to the screen. Sure enough, Demyx had been found, and was standing calmly on a beach, holding his collar right up to his mouth, and clearly not comprehending the subtleties of mild mannered speech levels. Okay, so letting Demyx try out the experimental microphones had been a bad idea. Zexion managed to turn the volume down considerably quickly before Demyx continued to shout.

"ZEXION? ARE YOU THERE YET? I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR AGES!" Demyx's magical ability to be far louder than required certainly wasn't going to any waste, and he was tapping his foot to boot. "YOU KNOW, I WOULDN'T MIND THE WAITING IF THERE WAS ACTUALLY SOMETHING TO _DO _OVER HERE." Anyone would think he was _actually_ feeling impatient, despite the obvious flawed logic in that.

It took Zexion a moment to fully recall why he was putting up with loud noises in his current state of sleep deprivation. A surprising amount of effort was spent fighting the urge to go back to bed right there and then. He didn't quite know why he stayed, but after moment of extreme internal argument he was still there, so he spoke.

"Please stop shouting, Demyx. My head hurts enough as it is."

"Oh! Zexion!" Thankfully Demyx's voice dropped down to his normal speaking range now that he had something to compare it to. "About time!" Zexion ignored that last remark. His locational apparatus was completely functional and _very _well timed, thank you very much Demyx.

"What do you see?" He could, of course, see the scenery as well, but it was coming off a bit like static onscreen, and occasional parts of the landscape seemed to be pixelating - of all things.

"Well, I don't know what I can say really." Demyx swung his long arms backwards and forwards, looking around as he did so. "It's a very ... beach-like beach. Lots of sand. Large amount of water. Slight possibility of sea shells. You know, beach stuff." There was a short pause as Demyx stopped swinging his arms and pointed towards the ocean. "Oh, and a giant swan."

Before Zexion could call Demyx down for being ridiculous a large swan did indeed swim its way on screen. As if that wasn't quite enough to catch him off guard, this swan in particular had a small yellow dinosaur sitting atop of it with an equally small sea mammal swimming out front. There were also two young kids sitting inside the swan – apparently a boat of sorts – peddling away with their legs as the swan came closer to the beach.

Zexion blinked. He opened his mouth to say something to Demyx but no words came. He immediately realised his folly as Demyx raised his collar back up to his mouth and spoke.

"ZEXION? ARE YOU STILL THERE?"

Gritting his teeth with effort, Zexion replied as calmly as he could. Even so, it came out as more of a hiss than he was going to admit.

"Would you _please _stop speaking so damned loudly!"

On screen, Demyx flinched visibly. Well, let him feel bad then, Zexion's ears certainly wasn't feeling any better. With a sigh, he retracted the thoughts immediately. It wasn't Demyx's fault. Making him feel bad certainly wasn't going to make himself feel any better – not that he could feel anything anyway, but treating other Organization members like actual human beings seemed more logical than not. If anything, he generally preferred it when Demyx was in a good mood – which was pretty much always really, but he was definitely not going to be the first person to shatter the part of Demyx that actually distinguished him from anyone else. Counter-productivity and all that.

"I apologise, Demyx," he said slowly, "I didn't mean it."

Perhaps forgetting that he was smack bang in the middle of Zexion's screen, Demyx rocked cheerfully on his heels, poking out his tongue as he did so. Zexion's lip twitched, but he said nothing. Demyx quickly ceased his rocking and jumped back a little in surprise.

"Uh oh, I got company." It was true. The swan boat was practically on shore now, making a bee line for Demyx's exact position.

"You may want to get out of there."

Spinning on his heels, Demyx turned and looked up. Zexion could see his dilemma. There was an immense cliff jutting out of the earth before him, towering above him and giving the distinct impression that anyone who tried to climb it would likely fall before they got half way. There was, however, a neatly convenient series of staircases crawling up the side, providing a suitably lengthy walk to the top. There was most certainly a healthy emphasis on the word 'lengthy'.

"There are stairs just there, Demyx. You can make your way to the top."

Demyx just stood there, looking on in horror.

"_What? _Walk up _that? _I don't think so!" Demyx was shaking his head, arms folded across his chest. "That looks like work. Which means sweating. Which is _gross_."

Zexion opened his mouth to argue, yet before he could speak Demyx had disappeared in a swirl of darkness. Seconds later the same darkness swirled at the top of the staircase, quickly yielding a very triumphant Demyx. Zexion waited for his screen to slowly readjust to the height difference. It really _was _a long way up. At the top of the flight of stairs was a sizable mansion, sitting comfortably on the implausible tall cliff top. More eye-catching, however, was that Demyx had his tongue out again.

"I can see you, you know."

With a yelp Demyx retracted his tongue. He spun on the spot, quick to change the subject.

"Uh, well! Nice place they got here. Let's go say hi." And with that, he was striding purposefully towards the strange mansion atop the cliff. Zexion wasn't sure if mansion was the right word, but it was certainly big enough for one. It was tall and rectangular, looking more and more like the home of some feudal lord the more Zexion inspected it. The implications of this escaped him for the moment, however, as his eyelids promptly began screaming for sleep once more. With effort, he kept them open. This could be important. The world needed to be documented.

With that in mind, Zexion abruptly noticed that his screen had been flashing a violent red colour. He glared at it momentarily before recalling just what he had to do to stop it. Seconds later waves of information poured over the screen, with text appearing in clumps and lines darting from object to object with important seeming intentions. The art to reading such an analysis was picking out which parts actually needed to be read, and with that well-practiced purpose in mind Zexion made a few mental notes about the physical consistency of the world. That was, before his mind screeched to a dead halt.

A few obnoxiously bright lines were attempting to interpret the energy signals being emitted from some small devices that the children from the swan boat seemed to have in their possession. Attempting was the right word, as each time they made a fragile connection from the boys to their strange animals the lines winked out of existence before rescanning the area and trying again. This was impossible, of course, as Zexion's machines were flawless. The only explanation was that the connection they were trying to read was beyond their capabilities, which meant only one thing.

The connection between the boys and their animals was a matter of the heart.

Their hearts were linked, not simply in the normal way, but in a way that affected both their data and the unusual level of power in their possession. Of all the things Zexion had been expecting to find on a morning where Demyx was inextricably lost on an unknown world, a prime point of study for the direct power of hearts was not among them. He would take all he could get however, and this was certainly exactly what the Organization was searching for in their ever growing study of hearts and their variants. The hard part would be staying awake long enough to actually think this through. Though, he supposed a matter of this importance should only be properly tackled with the mind properly rested. Not that he had time for that, as such. Not really.

As Demyx continued to walk towards the sizable manor, Zexion figured it couldn't hurt if he shut his eyes for just a short while. Not sleep, oh no, he wasn't going to sleep at all, he was just going to close his eyes for a little bit. His arms felt amazingly soft as he rested his head on them, promptly enjoying the peace that came with closed eyelids. Surely Demyx would be fine for just a few moments. Surely.

* * *

What was that? Gratuitous Kingdom Hearts and Digimon crossover? Yes, that's right. It had to be done. There was no way this was not going to happen. So enjoy the ride. The crazy, crazy ride.

For the sake of correct reference, this all takes place in that one episode of the first season, named "Princess Kareoke", thus the name. Creative no? We must all thank the wonderful Becoafamu for her wonderful help in both Beta-ing and just generally being awesome. If the name doesn't ring a bell, then you have clearly been reading the wrong fanfics. Go read hers. Now!

Luckily for all you readers, most of this fic is already written, so updates will happen swiftly. It was supposed to be a one shot. A ONE SHOT. The insanity of this will become clearer and clearer with each passing chapter.

In the meantime, feel free to fuel the already speedy updates with reviews : ) They make the universe a happy place, it's true. Feel free to also rant about how awesome the first two seasons of Digimon were. I will be agreeing with you.


	2. Chapter 2

"Zexion? Buddy?" Demyx spoke softly. He kept his arms rather firmly at his side, exercising just about all the self control he had in doing so. As tempting as it was to yell into his microphone once more, he had pissed Zexion off once already, and doing so again would absolutely slaughter any chance of having fun on this ... this _mission_. Zexion always saw a mission all the way through to the end, but if Demyx pushed too far he would be grumpy and snappy about it for the rest of the day. Xaldin might think otherwise, but being around angry people was never a good time in Demyx's books. No-one laughed at his jokes when they were in a bad mood, and they also were far less prone to ice cream with him.

... Not that he'd actually _had _ice cream with anyone, but Demyx had been itching to try it ever since he'd spied on Roxas for an entire afternoon. Apparently the kid ate ice cream, on top of a giant tower, all by himself. It looked about as fun as was safe – which was amazingly little – but there had to be some reason why he kept going there, and Demyx was almost interested enough to want to find out why. Almost.

After a long moment with no response from the man on the other side of the universe Demyx tried again.

"Zexion?" He had a quick flash of inspiration. "Zexion _sir?_"

Still nothing.

"Mister Zexion? Master Zexion? Number VI? Cloaked Schemer? Really short guy? Casual acquaintance of Demyx the great? Owner of boring literature?" He paused to listen, but there was still no response. "Aaaaanytime now."

When the lengthy stretch of silence only continued Demyx harrumphed to himself, crossing his arms as he did so. It just wasn't fair. Where had he gone? It wasn't like Demyx ever ditched _him_ mid-mission. Well, it's not like he did it often, only as often as he actually had missions with the guy. He didplan on staying the whole time one day soon, he really did, but it was nigh impossible when Zexion stopped to take notes every few steps. Some places weren't as bad as others, but Wonderland had been an absolute nightmare.

After another well practiced harrumph Demyx gave up on waiting. If Zexion was going to sulk, then let him sulk. Demyx would go off and see something _amazing_, and Zexion would have no choice to be jealous.

With plans forming quickly in his mind, Demyx brushed off his coat and approached the giant house. It was big, and yellow, and had a blue roof in that tiled pattern that seemed to curve off to the sides. Almost like a helmet. Or a double handled teapot. Or a ... house? Bah, analogies were Zexion's thing. Demyx was just content with the fact that it was yellow.

He peered off towards the cliff before stepping up to the front door. Those kids with the weird pets were still climbing up that horrendous staircase, and Demyx really had no desire to talk with them. Talking to the inhabitants of any world was discouraged in every way, shape or form. Or at least ... he had assumed it was. He had never seen anyone punished for such. Come to think of it, maybe he had that wrong. Perhaps talking to the inhabitants of worlds was actually _en_couraged? It would explain why Roxas did that left right and center. Actually Xaldin did that too, off at Beast's Castle. And Xigbar, at the Land of Dragons...

Was he meantto be meddling in the affairs of other worlds after all? ... Well, shit. No wonder no-one ever took him seriously.

Giving his head a good mental shake, Demyx reassessed his To Do List. If he was _indeed _supposed to be meddling in the affairs of worlds, he would meddle better than the Organization had ever seen meddling meddled with before! He would make even Lexaeus quake in his boots!

Demyx couldn't help but snort at his own joke. Lexaeus. Quake. Boots. A brilliant pun, without a doubt. His list of things to make Zexion jealous was growing already.

With a glance back to the cliff Demyx nearly jumped in shock. The kids had nearly reached the top of the staircase already, their crazy hairstyles just barely bobbing their way into view. Jeez, what did they do in their free time? Walk all day or something?

He looked up. His gaze latched onto a balcony over head. One swirl of darkness later he was standing on said balcony, looking down smugly at his would-be pursuers. It was only after the two kids and their strange creatures came fully into view that Demyx remembered his new goal of actually meddling with these people. He mentally kicked himself, very much hoping that Zexion hadn't been watching his immediate misstep. Not that Zexion could read his mind anyway. He hoped.

Demyx turned and saw that the balcony on which he stood hung outside a very grand looking bedroom, decorated with lace and tassels and a surprising amount of pink. Just as surprisingly the glass door was unlocked, and so Demyx easily let himself inside. He had taken little more than a single step when the door at the other end of the room swung open. Demyx opened his mouth with an excuse already on his tongue but the sight beyond the doorway caused the words to die in his mouth.

Through the doorway walked a frog. Well, more than a frog. The thing was standing on two legs, was about half as tall as Demyx, and seemed to have a tuba coiled around its neck. Round eyes blinked as the green frog-man-thing stared at him.

Demyx was speechless.

"Ah, there you are!" the amphibian-come-instrument exclaimed, as if it recognised him instantly. "Where's the triple hot fudge sundae we ordered for delivery to the princess?"

Demyx gaped as the thing's tongue flapped. It ended in three different holes, poking out of his mouth like a trident.

"Well?" it asked again.

"Uhh ... sundae?" Demyx took a step back, waving his gloved hands before him. He couldn't shake the distinct impression that someone infinitely smarter than him would have jumped into the conversation with an elaborate plan and convinced the green thing that yes, he was indeed delivering a sundae, and he thus had a perfectly reasonable explanation for being here. He watched the opportunity flit away from him as he fumbled after it, trying to think of what one normally said when talking to a tuba frog.

Before he could think too far down that train of thought another frog poked his head around the corner of the doorway.

"No no!" the second thing exclaimed with an air of importance that didn't quite fit its appearance, "He's the one who was meant to get the bacon chilli cheeseburger with fries and a super sized milkshake!"

At this, a third tuba-frog-hybrid similarly poked his head around the doorway.

"You're both wrong! He's delivering the garden fresh salad with low fat dressing and no dessert!"

Before Demyx could wonder just what kind of princess would order so much food for one meal, he seized the opportunity that had been flapping itself around his face, poking its tongue and making loud noises before it could get away once more.

"Yes!" Demyx said, pointing at the frogs with purpose, "That's me, right there. The salad thing."

It seemed that that had been the right thing to say, as all three frogs threw their arms into the air and ran back down the corridor yelling, "Hurry, hurry!"

Even as they left, another figure walked through the door. Demyx wasn't sure what he had been expecting after talking amphibians fused with half an orchestra, but it certainly wasn't what had just walked into the room. Judging from the dress, it was probably a girl, but as that was as far as his identification process ran. Beneath the extremely frilly and extravagant material, the thing very much looked like a plant. Its hair seemed to be the petals of a flower, blooming right there on its head. Its skin was green, with roots instead of feet and thorns instead of fingers. Large beady black eyes looked at him curiously, yet most surprising of all was the fact that Demyx thought it was actually rather pretty. It _was _smiling after all, and it was a rather pleasant smile at that.

He didn't quite know why any of this surprised him really. During his time in the Organization Demyx had encountered any number of insane and clearly impossible things; servants in the form of clocks and candlesticks, armies in the form of playing cards, schools of fish that sung in harmony, talking mice who lived in a castle, Saïx in the shower... taking all that into account, he wasn't sure why anything surprised him at all anymore, but it still seemed determined to do so anyway.

"Who are you?" the plant asked him curiously, its voice high and nasally. Demyx wasn't sure just what he seemed to these creatures, black coat and all, but after a quick moment of thought he figured he may as well enjoy this while he could. Maybe the _plant_ would have ice cream with him.

He offered a hasty bow, flourishing his hand off to the side – in a manner not at all unlike shooing away a fly.

"Do you be the princess of the castle, my uh... my lady?"

The plant giggled - a hiccup-like nasally wheeze that somehow still managed to sound very amused.

"Oh, no," it said pleasantly, "The Princess is Mimi. I'm Palmon." It curtsied then, quickly becoming one of the strangest things Demyx ever thought he would see. "Nice to meet you."

"The pleasure is all mine, Lady Palmon," Demyx said in a voice as Luxord-like as he could muster, bowing his head to her once more. Palmon giggled again.

"I like you," she said happily. "Mimi would like you too."

The sound of raised voices echoed down the corridor. Palmon's eyes seemed to narrow as it turned towards the door, giving off a slight growling nice.

"Just what was that?" it asked the air as it ran out into the hallway, Demyx all but forgotten – a fact for which he was very grateful. The plant may have been impressed, but speaking like Luxord was a strain on his face that he didn't want to endure again anytime soon. British accents and Demyx's face did not agree with each other, and this was precisely why he had been forbidden from impersonating other Organization members in his free time. He was still slightly sour about that.

It was while Demyx wondered just what counted as fashion among talking plants that he heard a noisy crowd pass the door. He poked his head out carefully to see a whole swarm of the tuba-dressed-frogs throwing a pair of boys out the front door. Just before the door slammed behind them Demyx caught a glimpse of their clothes and – more importantly – their hair. They were clearly the same boys from the cliff, small dinosaur things and all. Apparently their luck with the Talking Garden Kingdom hadn't been as good as Demyx's.

Out of pure curiosity Demyx trotted back through the plant's bedroom and out onto the balcony to peer down at them. He was completely out in the open, and just a single story above ground level, but he went completely unnoticed as the two boys and their animal things talked amongst themselves on the drawbridge. Demyx instinctively leant closer to hear.

"If that's the way you treat your guests we're never coming back!"

The speaker was in fact neither of the children but instead was the little sea dog by their feet. It was a cute little thing really, with big flippers, purple stripes and a small tuft of orange hair. It was, however, not in a dress. Not even a flash of lace. Rather disappointing compared to the plant.

"Now what are we gonna do? She's totally into this digi-fairy tale," the taller of the two boys seemed to ask the other. He wore glasses and had short blue hair. He also seemed to be carrying a medical kit slung over one shoulder, to which Demyx smirked in glee. He had long since adapted to healing injuries magically, leaving him with the freedom to launch headlong into any situation without hesitation. He could barely remember what it was like to be careful at all. You know, apart from the daily dealing with the other Organization members and all.

"I wonder what she coulda done to make them wait on her hand and foot like this," the other kid replied. Unless Demyx missed his guess completely, this guy was probably the leader of the little group. His time in the Organization had taught him that the leaders in any social situation were always required to have the craziest hair of anyone present – it was practically law - and this guy definitely fulfilled that criteria. It was just ... big. He also wore goggles, which may have helped win the hair criteria, considering the fact that he wore them on his head instead of anywhere even slightly useful.

While Demyx had been paying absolutely no attention to what the two kids were talking about, one of the weary looking frog guards conveniently spoke up and caught his attention again.

"You really wanna know?" Well, that was pretty convenient. The _one _guard that was ready to spill the secrets of his princess just happened to be standing near the kids while they asked questions loudly. Demyx couldn't help but wonder if these kids had such amazing luck all the time.

"Uh, sure," the goggles kid answered uneasily. Taking the response as a full blown profession of faith, the small gathering of frogs promptly lead the group of kids and talking animals around the side of the castle.

Demyx bounced on his feet, eager to see where they were going. While he intended to follow them stealthily, he instead whirled around and stumbled, knocking over the talking plant in the process.

After a hasty dance of apologies and attempts to help Palmon back to her ... uh, feet, Demyx thought he might as well see whether major plot points were as easy to worm out of people as the boys had made it seem.

"I hope you don't mind me asking, Lady Palmon," Demyx said slowly, twisting his mouth into the Luxord-like slur once more, "But just who were the two kids who were thrown out of the castle?"

Palmon looked thoughtful for a moment before answering. "Oh! Tai and Joe? They're our friends."

It took a phenomenal amount of willpower to prevent one of his eyebrows shooting up at that. "Uh, but they were literally _thrown_ out of the castle, weren't they?"

For a moment, Palmon's face made Demyx think he was about to get thrown out right after them, yet her face quickly softened and she sighed.

"Mimi's really making a mess of things, isn't she? She's usually such a nice girl, it's not her fault. Not really," the plant explained nasally. Demyx didn't interrupt, hanging on her every word. "The Geckomon wanted our help to wake up their master, Shogunmon, but it's been days now and Mimi really isn't any closer to singing than she was in the first place."

Jackpot. Demyx officially loved this place already. If simply asking questions was all it took to reveal someone's private agenda then it truly was a thousand times simpler than The Castle That Never Was. No-one was straight forward there, and no-one ever gave simple answers. No-one ever wanted to help him take out the garbage either, but that was completely beside the point.

It was then that Demyx realised just what the plant had said.

"Wait wait wait. The little frogs want you to wake up King Frog, by _singing_?"

"Uhuh," the plant wheezed simply in reply. It was official, Demyx was finally home. Simple honesty, animals fused with instruments, and the problems of the world being solved by the power of music. Not even Wonderland was on this much crack. Demyx never wanted to leave.

Yet, from the worried expression on the plant's face, it was clear that this world had its problems just like any other. For a moment, Demyx hesitated. He had never meddled in the goings-on of other worlds, and whether he was meant to or not, it seemed only too tempting to just jump out of the middle of nowhere and try solve the problems of the world with a flick of his wrist. On the other hand, Saïx would quite possibly murder him if he ever found out that Demyx had helped someone simply because he thought they were cute – you know, as far as plants go.

In the end, there wasn't much of a decision in the matter. For the first time in far too long Demyx was on stage and performing instead of slinking around backstage. He was loving every metaphorical moment of it.

Demyx squatted down on his heels, looking Palmon in the eye and grinning as best as he could.

"Well, Palmon," Demyx explained carefully, "If you're really worried about your friends, why don't you go off and do a little ...damage control." He wiggled his fingers for emphasis. "You know, make sure they aren't too mad."

Palmon's face brightened at this. She nodded, muttered her thanks and rushed off to do just that. Demyx smiled openly as she left. He felt so ... good. It had been so long since he'd done something like that, he had almost forgotten what it felt like. Before he could help himself he snorted. Yeah right Xemnas. No feelings huh?

Still smiling, Demyx got to his feet. If he had needed any further proof that Xemnas used that nonsense just to get the Organization to do his bidding, this would do it. He supposed it made sense really. In a gathering of the most powerful and amazingly different nobodies around, Xemnas clearly sought a single reason he could use to bring them all under his thumb at the same time. The claim that they could only get their hearts back by helping him certainly aided his agenda almost too well. "Remembering what it felt like" his ass, Demyx could feel things, and he was going to make the most of this brilliant discovery. Where better to do this than in a world as awesome as this one?

Quickly finding where Palmon had run off to, Demyx followed her, hanging back just out of sight. She led him out of the mansion and across a bridge that extended out the back. The bridge was covered and hung over a glistening sea below. Demyx could easily see the beach that he had been standing on not too long ago – just off to the right, and clearly identifiable via the giant swan boat parked haphazardly on the shore. The bridge wasn't exceedingly long, and it quickly led into a smaller sized building that was every bit as elegant as the main ... palace? It had a Princess, so he assumed it must have been a palace. It definitely wasn't a castle, that was for sure. People would have a hard time trying to find this princess if they were looking in all the castles and forgot to check this strangely decorated place.

Once inside the second building, Demyx slipped off to the side and hid behind a pillar. The room was quite large, with a vaulted ceiling and most of the floor space being a wide open floor. The back wall held a stage, complete with red curtains, large speakers, countless glittering coloured lights, a disco ball and a microphone. It was glorious. More curious than all of that combined, however, was the utterly huge frog up on stage, sitting completely still with its back facing the room. Judging from the fact that it was red, as tall as the building itself, and sleeping, Demyx quickly assumed it was the sleeping lord of the mansion that Palmon had mentioned earlier.

Palmon herself was talking with the small gathering of her friends -the two boys with their strange animal things- again. From what he could gather, they were about to try wake up the giant frog by singing on their own. Demyx wasn't quite sure what the laws of waking frogs with music were, but the plan sounded solid enough.

And so, with a smile, Demyx settled down to listen to their singing.

He would quickly regret this decision. They were absolutely dismal singers.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Now that Agumon and Gomamon's performance – if you could call it that – was over, Tai brought his hands down from blocking his ears with a great sigh of relief. As wicked as Agumon was, his singing? Not so hot, and that was the _nice _way of putting it.

"It's no use," Joe muttered dejectedly, lowering his hands as well. As much as the guy was prone to worrying, this time he had a point. Gommamon's voice was just as shrill and uncomfortable as Agumon's. And he hadn't even been _trying _the words.

"After that he might not wake up for another hundred years," Tai agreed, only half jokingly. The 'he' being the giant frog up on stage; the one that could only be awakened by a voice as beautiful as the one that had beaten him in a singing competition a century ago, and the one who'd eaten one too many donuts.

Tai looked towards the small assembly of Geckomon and Otamamon, but they shook their heads. They were just as out of ideas as he was. This frog guy was really turning out to be more trouble than he was worth.

Just as Tai was about to tell Agumon to light the sleeping guy's tail on fire, an unfamiliar voice called out from behind one of the pillars that lined the walls.

"Hey!"

Everyone's heads swivelled around to stare at the newcomer, who was now walking briskly towards them. The guy was tall, and slim, and had spikey blonde hair that stood directly up. He was wearing some sort of long black coat, but the details of it were just a bit hard to grasp, as if they wouldn't quite come into focus. Tai had never seen this person before in his life, and judging from the looks on everyone else's faces, neither had they. That was, until Palmon suddenly broke into a grin and waved at him.

"Oh! It's you again," she screeched happily.

"You know this guy?" Joe whispered doubtfully. "Who is he?"

"Um," was the informative answer she chose to give. After a quick moment of thinking, she smiled guiltily, rubbing the back of her flower-topped head. "You know, I have no idea."

By then, the mysterious tall guy had made his way right up to the group and was smiling at them in clear amusement.

"You know," he said, "I'd hate to say it, but I think even _they _could sing better than you guys did." As he said that, he pointed his gloved finger at the three Geckomon.

Immediately Tai's logical question of 'who are you?' was thrown to the wind.

"Oh yeah?" Tai shot back at him, "Well I'd like to see _you _try it!"

Tai's eyes kept slipping over the guy's coat and to the floor, almost as if the coat itself refused to be acknowledged in any way whatsoever, and so Tai kept his eyes on his face. Whatever was up with his funky coat, randomly appearing people in the Digital World generally seemed to fall into one of two kinds; the bad guys, and the people who wanted them to save the world. If he had popped out of nowhere just to insult their singing skills, then he definitely didn't seem to be in the second group.

"Yeah!" Gommamon added haughtily, as if genuinely offended, though Tai found that hard to believe. "Why don't _you g_ive it a shot, whoever you are."

"You couldn't exactly do any worse," Joe mused aloud, pushing his glasses up his nose the way he always did when trying to think up Pros and Cons. Agumon merely shrugged, and the Geckomon clearly had no objections. They seemed too defeated to object to anything at this point.

The tall guy barked a short high-pitched laugh and plonked his hands on his hips.

"Oh, I can do better than that." He turned to the Geckomon with a grin. "You ... uh, fishthings! Do you have anything that could be used to... like, record someone singing? Like a..." he seemed to hesitate at this, as if unsure just how much to say. "Like ..."

"I think we have just the thing!" one of the Otammamon cried in its wobbly voice and hopped off towards the door. As pleased with himself as this coat guy was, Tai still wasn't sure just how far he could be trusted.

"Just why are you helping us?"

The tall guy smiled even more at this, as if he'd been hoping someone would ask. "Oh, I just like this place, that's all." He nodded, as if it all made sense. Tai was starting to question his sanity. "But hey, enough about me. You guys need the Princess to wake that guy up, right?"

The three Geckomon nodded in unison.

"Only the Princess' voice is beautiful enough to wake him," one of the remaining Otammamon whined.

Tai still didn't quite know what he thought of that. He'd heard Mimi's singing once before, in a sewer no less. It had been far from pleasant, even excluding their surroundings, and he really didn't know how it would be any different this time around. Perhaps Mimi just had a voice that only giant comatose frogs could truly appreciate.

"Oh!" Joe burst out suddenly, "I see what you're doing. If we record Mimi's singing, then we don't need her to sing in front of Shogunmon after all."

"That's the one!"

At this, the Geckomon all cheered in excitement, gibbering in the anticipation of finally being able to wake their sleeping lord. Or perhaps it was in the anticipation of getting rid of Mimi. Either way, Tai couldn't blame them. But that still didn't answer the question of who the strange guy was.

Yet just as Tai turned to ask just that, the guy was gone.

"Hey, where'd he go?"

"Where'd who go?" Gommamon squeaked.

"Are you feeling okay Tai?" Agumon asked, clearly worried.

Tai stared at them as if they were crazy.

"I'm fine. But where'd the tall guy in the coat go?" Everyone was looking at Tai as if _he _was the crazy one. "You know, the guy who thought of recording Mimi's voice?"

Joe put a hand on Tai's shoulder. "But Tai," he was saying, "_You _thought of recording Mimi's voice."

Tai blinked for a moment. His thoughts raced to catch up. He _had _thought of that, hadn't he? He didn't know how he could have forgotten that.

Agumon was still looking at Tai with worry, one of his claws in his mouth. "Are you sure about this guy in a black coat Tai?" What on earth was he talking about?

"What guy in a black coat?"

Palmon shuffled over to Agumon and put her ... uh, hand, on his forehead. "Are _you _okay Agumon?"

If pint sized dinosaurs could grimace, Agumon was certainly pulling it off. He was looking around at everyone as if flustered and unsure of what was going on. Fortunately it was these kinds of situations that Tai was absolutely made for.

"Alright, enough chit chat. Let's go everyone!"

Instantly rallied up, everyone fell in behind Tai as he made his way back towards the main building. It was time to put his genius plan into action!

* * *

Palmon looked around the room nervously one last time before Mimi strode in as expected. Her dress was pretty, it really was. Much prettier than the one Palmon herself wore, but that didn't matter much to Palmon. She usually never wore anything anyway. It was strange, how humans always tried to cover themselves up, but this was not the time to think about that.

After closing the fanciful green doors behind her, Mimi turned and immediately stared at the red box Palmon was standing next to. Palmon hoped this would work, she really did. Mimi had really gone off the deep end recently, even for her.

"What's this?" Mimi asked, all composed and princess-like.

"It's a Karaoke set," Palmon answered simply, giving her best smile in the process. It had to work. It just had to.

"Yes. I can see that," Mimi snapped, losing patience, "But what is it doing in _my_ royal chambers?" Mimi pointed at the box as if it were performing some dire form of treason. Well, it was, but she didn't know that.

Palmon wheezed her laugh nervously, waving her arm at Mimi as if she was joking.

"I just love hearing you sing! I thought you might give us a private concert." She had practiced those lines, and was quite pleased with herself after pulling them off so smoothly. Lying wasn't exactly her strong point. She held the microphone out to Mimi with a smile. "Here."

Mimi bent slightly to take the microphone, looking at it thoughtfully as she did so. She gave a thoughtful "Hmm," which was all the confirmation Palmon needed.

"Thanks! You're the greatest!"

Before Mimi could object Palmon hit the right button. The same tune as always floated out of the small box, the music Mimi had sung to in all her previous half-attempts to wake up Shogunmon. As Palmon turned back to her, Mimi started bobbing up and down, grinning to herself. It was working!

"Now feel the music, feel the music," Palmon encouraged gently, waving her spiny fingers to the beat of the song.

Mimi was smiling, for once looking as beautiful as she truly should in a full blown princess outfit. She was humming in tune, just about to sing. They were so close!

Mimi's mouth opened, just a split second away from the plan coming to fruition, when her face quickly contorted into a look of confusion as she looked past the karaoke set.

"Huh? What's that cord for..."

The instant it took for her face to flash into anger was all it took for Palmon to know they had failed. She dimly recalled a voice echoing the words 'damage control'. She swivelled around, mouth open already trying to make up some excuse, but as soon as she saw what Mimi had seen her mouth clicked shut. Joe's hair was sitting in plain view of the window, right alongside Agumon's head.

Mimi lifted the microphone up to her lips and screamed as loud as she could. Palmon didn't need the sound of everyone hiding outside suddenly screaming in pain to know that their plan had failed dismally, and that they were at Mimi's mercy. She was a good girl, she really was, but the way she was now? They were all doomed.

* * *

Woah, a chapter from the view of digimon characters. Nuts huh? Well, there you go. Now you know how plants think. Tune in next time when she has time to think about soil nutrition and photosynthesis!

Many many thanks go to the wonderful Becoafamu for Betaing once again. She does so much, I swear she never sleeps.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: There will not be any mention of soil nutrition and photosynthesis in this chapter. Oh, the misleading advertising! Try to enjoy it anyway : )

* * *

**Chapter 4**

Xigbar slipped into the room silently. With his single yellow eye he spotted Zexion slumped over the keyboard, head resting on folded arms and quite clearly asleep. He almost felt bad for having to wake the guy up. Almost.

Slipping up next to him, Xigbar placed a hand on Zexion's shoulder. Admittedly, he did it far harder than was necessary, but to his satisfaction Zexion jolted awake with a snort, looking around with half open eyes. Xigbar stared straight at the computer screen, smiling as Zexion stifled a yawn.

"Interesting place you've found here," Xigbar drawled, slowly so that Zexion could catch up. By all accounts, Zexion was intelligent beyond measure, yet Xigbar held no doubts that even _he _needed time to wake up out of the blue. From the corner of his eye, he watched as Zexion ran a hand through his lopsided hair. Zexion's eyes quickly narrowed when he glanced at the screen, hand freezing where it was.

Xigbar chuckled despite himself. It was good to know that even the child prodigy could be caught off guard at times. Not that he was a child anymore, but still. Xigbar cleared his throat.

"A fine discovery by all accounts. It's almost a shame that Xemnas thinks the same, wouldn't you say?"

Xigbar watched Zexion closely. He was smart, he'd figure it out. Xigbar was expecting his eyes to widen, or to blink in confusion, but instead Zexion's eyes narrowed even further.

"Are you gloating?"

Xigbar snorted.

"As if!"

He folded his arms across his chest, recollecting his thoughts. Perhaps he had been too vague after all. Ah well, plan B. "Vexen's being sent to take over."

Zexion swore.

Xigbar laughed. Now _that _was the reaction he'd been hoping for.

"Listen, Kid," Xigbar continued, "Strictly speaking, everyone's meant to pull out of there until Vexen concludes his analysis." He nodded towards the screen. "But it looks like someone might need to go and tell Demyx that. He never checks his door."

Zexion watched him carefully, clearly comprehending but still wary. It looked like Xigbar might be winning his bet after all.

"If," Xigbar continued smoothly, "someone was to, say ... 'distract' Vexen as such, then someone else could easily fetch Demyx with time to spare." Xigbar finished that with a smile, leaving the hint clear. Of course, it would have to be. There might have been some leeway for a lone Demyx wandering around where he wasn't supposed to be, but with Zexion guiding the entire process? It'd take a lot of quick talking to convince anyone that he they weren't deliberately working against Xemnas' orders, and traitors were hardly treated kindly around here.

Zexion considered him, meeting his gaze easily as he thought it through. After a short moment he nodded, as Xigbar knew he would.

With a grin, Xigbar waved his hand, heading for the door. Zexion offered his thanks. Xigbar merely laughed again.

"Remember it, Kid. You owe me."

As soon as Xigbar was out of sight he slid up against the wall just beside the doorway. He waited quietly, being very careful not to make a sound, and once his ears tingled with the sound of darkness being opened he poked his head back around the doorway. Sure enough, Zexion stepped through the portal and was gone, the dark sphere swiftly winking out behind him. Xigbar couldn't help but smile. He had heard his smile was far from a pleasant sight, what with the eye patch and scars across his face and all, but he was quite far from caring. Everything was going just as planned.

The next part was even easier. It didn't take very long to find Vexen – it never did. The haggled scientist was just about as predictable as he was intelligent, and he _was _intelligent, having almost perfected the art of cloning and all. Vexen's laugh might outstrip even Xigbar's own smile on the unpleasant scale, but Xigbar could easily respect anyone who could potentially make an exact copy of himself. The thought of a world with not just one, but _two _Xigbars was just too tempting to throw away. There was, of course, no-one better than Xigbar himself at getting his own jokes, so it was a pretty easy assumption that his clone would be the best company one would ever find.

Vexen had, however, clearly disapproved of any such thoughts when Xigbar had brought them up. It was no biggie for the moment, as right now Vexen had a different use.

"Vexen, buddy!"

As usual, Vexen jumped in his seat, making the odd collection of beakers and test tubes on his desk rattle as he did so. The scientist turned to scowl at him while Xigbar made himself at home, leaning casually against some human-sized bubbling apparatus. The room was nearly identical to the room in which Zexion had been in, if twice as long, and filled with general science equipment instead of computers and machines. There was a tall cylinder in the corner with an uncomfortably familiar reddish tinged liquid inside. Xigbar currently had a bet with Luxord over just what that was, but again, that was a different plan altogether.

"Is there any reason in particular as to why you continually interrupt me while I work, _Number II_?" Vexen's voice grated, clearly lacking any humour. His face was no better; gaunt and pointed, framed on either side with his lengthy pale hair. Vexen was easily the top contender for having the boringest face in the entire Organization.

"Woah, easy boy," Xigbar replied, making soothing motions with his hands, "No need to get mad. I simply have a question, that's all."

Vexen gritted his teeth. Xigbar could all but hear the rasping _I-am-not-a-horse _speech forming in his mind automatically. He quickly continued.

"Ah, my mistake. I thought you were the smartest guy here." Xigbar shook his head, as if reconsidering. "Perhaps I meant to see Lexaeus." He straightened from leaning against the ... whatever it was, but before he could move towards the door Vexen held up a hand to stop him.

"Don't be absurd," he said in his usual manner; slowly, pronouncing every word ever so carefully. "Lexaeus hasn't the wisdom to fill a tea cup. What is your dilemma?"

Carefully keeping his face as plain and thoughtful as he could manage, Xigbar leant back against the tall bubbly glass thing once more.

"What is the punishment for disobeying a direct order?"

Vexen gave him a suspicious glance at that, but he answered.

"Why, termination, of course. You knew that certainly."

"Ah!" Xigbar snapped his fingers, as if it had been the simplest answer all along. Well, it had been, but that was practically the point. "'Course. Well, just thought I'd check. You know, in case someone was off disobeying orders somewhere."

Vexen straightened slightly in his chair, sensing the possible threat. Of course, everyone in the Organization was disobeying orders in some way or another, but being called up for it was mostly unheard of unless it was something major – something like murdering another member, or screwing over a major plan, or stealing Saix's hand lotion. That kind of stuff.

"And the real reason you came to me? What is it?"

Xigbar waved his hands dismissively.

"Pssh, you assume too much Vexen. Do I really need a motive to come see you?"

Vexen's expression was barely short of a glare, leaving the answer completely clear.

Xigbar snorted. "Seriously Vexen. It's not like _you _of all people would be needing a point of leverage over the younger members now would you?"

Vexen's expression softened ever so slightly at that. The glare was still there, but the curve of his lips changed ever so noticeably.

Bingo.

Xigbar stretched his arms out above him, sighing as he did so. "Poor Demyx. He really would hate to be blackmailed. He doesn't handle that stuff too well, wouldn't you say Vexen? Neither does Zexion come to think of it." Vexen said nothing, clearly waiting for the crucial piece of information. Xigbar dropped the last piece of the puzzle right in for him. These academic types were really too easy. "From what I hear, the only one allowed in the Digital World right now is you, am I right?"

At that Vexen's face lightened considerably. He turned back to his pristine white desk, nimbly plucking up sheets of paper and muttering to himself excitedly. Vexen's muttering caused a deal of concern with the other members, usually when it broke out during meals or when Vexen broke off mid-sentence to mutter instead before picking the sentence back up as if nothing had happened. It was a relief that the muttering didn't seem to be too bad this time around. Xigbar couldn't quite catch most of it, but it seemed to be about 'vices' and 'crests'. Xigbar had absolutely no clue what that was about.

After a moment Vexen paused and looked back up at Xigbar, face blank once more.

"Why are you still here?"

Xigbar raised his hands defensively and quickly slipped back out the way he came. Once out of sight, he once again slipped up against the wall near the doorway, listening carefully. Vexen was considerably louder than Zexion had been, with glasses clinking and bubbling as Vexen shuffled through his workspace. Xigbar had no idea what he was looking for, but knowing Vexen, it was probably exceedingly boring.

After a rather lengthy wait his ears picked up the familiar sound of darkness once more. Grinning to himself eagerly Xigbar trotted back down the plain white hallways of the now-empty section of The Castle That Never Was.

Things were about to get interesting.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Zexion stared at Demyx. Demyx smiled back.

"So, what you're saying is, this girl threw all her friends in prison because they tried to help a sleeping frog?"

"Yup."

Zexion blinked. He had clearly missed a lot during his spontaneous nap. Much more than he would've thought anyway. The sky was dark now, with the shining moon casting a soft light around the mansion balcony. Both Demyx and himself were crouching beneath a window, whispering with their heads together. He would have thought it ridiculous if it wasn't giving him the most amazing view of Demyx's gravity-defying hair that he'd ever seen. Just think what he himself could do if he mastered that particular trick.

All thoughts of haste had long since left Zexion's mind. He admitted that he wasn't supposed to be here in the first place, but now that he _was _here the sheer thirst for understanding was gnawing at the corners of his mind. It just wouldn't do to be presented with this kind of opportunity only to pass it up- call it scholarly etiquette.

There was something intricate surrounding the nature of data in this world, much more than even the fact that it was alive and conscious. It was something to do with its intrinsic link to whatever world it had initially stemmed from, and though Zexion hadn't quite figured out the mechanics of it, there was something absolutely fascinating at work between the strange children and their animal companions. To figure out this mystery - to add this absolutely priceless piece of information to his research – was worth running a danger line any day. In order to puzzle this thing out he needed to keep a close eye on these children and – of course - that meant staying in close proximity with Demyx.

This was precisely how he had ended up on this balcony, listening to the taller member recount precisely every detail he had observed thus far and occasionally correcting his grammar as he went. It wasn't so bad really, not since Demyx couldn't scream through his speakers any more, but it did include a heavy amount of recapping. Demyx had a habit of dwelling on the most insidiously insignificant details. Did it really matter that a bipedal dinosaur couldn't sing better than child only bordering on puberty? Honestly!

Still, he listened to every detail. One could never tell which piece of information might prove the key to unlocking this world's knowledge.

"You should've seen it Zex," Demyx was whispering excitedly, "It was absolutely heartbreaking! Tai and Joe kept saying how much they were just trying to help, and then she even made Palmon cry!"

"That's the plant in a dress, right?" There were so many names Demyx was throwing around now, it was hard to keep up.

"Well, yes," Demyx quickly explained, "But she's not in a dress anymore. You know, being a prisoner and all."

Zexion nodded, but there was still one unanswered question looming in his mind.

"And why are you helping these people?"

For a moment Demyx's smile faltered, but it strangely came back just as quickly.

"You wouldn't understand Zexion. It feels ... good, to help people."

Zexion sniffed. Oh, he wouldn't know, would he? After waking up with next to no sleep to help Demyx himself this morning? And putting himself in the firing line to get Demyx out of here before Vexen found him? Admittedly both of those examples were primarily just manifestations of his own agenda, but still, he deserved credibility all the same. He opened his mouth to say such but Demyx cut him off.

"Please Zexion?"

It made no sense, but Zexion's tongue froze. He stared at Demyx. The moon above them shone down, making his hair glow softly in the moonlight. Even with the darkness all around, Zexion could see his face clearly. It was expectant – no, hopeful. Demyx' eyes were wide and he leant forward ever so slightly, as if eagerly anticipating what Zexion would say next. Logic held no sway here. He _should _be hauling Demyx's sorry behind out of the world before Vexen caught them both, but ... but he couldn't. Not with Demyx giving him that look.

...Hmm, and his research, of course. Strange how Demyx could push that out of his mind so quickly. Zexion was getting the distinct impression that even if he hadn't wanted to research this world himself, he would have been at Demyx's mercy when it came to him pouting in the moonlight.

It just wasn't fair.

"Fine," he said finally. He tried very hard not blush as Demyx silently cheered in response. He wasn't successful, but he did try.

Zexion stood, brushed off his coat, and carefully peered through the window. The bedroom rather unsurprisingly contained a bed, complete with its occupant sleeping peacefully within the blankets.

It was a huge thing really, a large four poster bed with thick pink curtains and yellow ribbons. The entire room followed the same trend, with splashes of pink and red striping across each wall, and every piece of furniture looking more expensive than that last. The girl in the bed seemed to be enjoying it - or at least as far as Zexion could tell, with her being asleep and all. Her hair was generously long, and her face held a grace that would be called pretty by most standards. The one thing he hadn't been expecting was that she couldn't have been more than twelve years old at the most.

Demyx crept to his feet next to Zexion, watching the girl carefully.

"Just don't scare her too much," he whispered, clearly concerned. Zexion turned to him.

"You're sure you want to do this?" There was no going back after all. Once they started they would be well and truly interfering in matters that didn't concern them in anyway what so ever. By any and all excuses, Zexion should not be relenting to this. He should not be, but Demyx's face convinced him otherwise. His eyes really seemed to shine in the moonlight – how strange that it was never noticeable back at the Castle That Never Was. Perhaps it was because the moon there wasn't really a moon at all.

Demyx nodded in response, grinning with determination. He then surprised Zexion completely by putting a hand on his shoulder and smiling even wider before turning his head back to the window. Zexion flushed red. See, now that was the kind of behaviour that made Demyx so illogically likable. No-one else in the Organization showed even a tenth of that emotion. It was refreshing, to say the least.

Bringing his mind back to the task at hand, Zexion focussed on the girl through the window. It was a simple matter of illusion really, all the intangible ones were. It was just as easy to expand the image he created outwards, projecting it throughout the entire room. It wasn't necessary at all, but this way Demyx could watch too.

The light in the room dimmed to shadow, mirroring what the girl would be dreaming. An image of said girl stood in the room's darkness, precisely as she thought of herself; standing elegantly in her wide pink princess dress, complete with pink bows on white skirts and a gemmed crown on her head. The implications of such a self image were far flung and interesting to be sure, but he was not here to study her psyche. Not yet anyway.

The girl looked around the darkness curiously before latching onto the sight of the rest of her 'dream.' She flinched in fear as two figures loomed out of the darkness, coming at her menacingly with their hands raised. Zexion had no clue who they were, but it was easy enough for things to appear as someone expected them too. She must've truly been afraid of these things, whatever they were, and Zexion wasn't surprised if their appearances had anything to do with it. One very much seemed like an image of a devil – a lean figure all in black with claws and bat like wings – while the seemed to be ... a monkey? A monkey with sunglasses even, with a teddy bear on its waist. Truly terrifying, Zexion was sure.

The pink-dressed girl backed away and turned to her left, immediately commanding the small retinue of humanoid frogs and puppy-sized tadpoles that had instantly materialised to stop her attackers. Instead of doing so, however, they merely looked at her angrily and refused. She gasped, clearly taken aback by their uncharacteristic behaviour. She threatened not to sing for them if they didn't help her, but apparently the frogs were having none of it, and soon they turned their backs on her, disappearing into the darkness. The girl called after them desperately, promising that she really would sing for them. Her words fell on deaf ears however. The servants were gone.

Zexion had to admit, this was working really well. There was next to no improvisation involved, so he barely had to do a thing content-wise. Apparently the girl really feared this stuff already. Before he could think on it too much the dream continued.

As the girl turned to face the looming attackers once more her friends appeared between them, facing her with disapproving looks. Her face lightened visibly in relief as she asked them for help. The one Zexion recognised as Tai from Demyx's descriptions spoke back with scorn.

"Sorry, we only help our _friends_."

"What's wrong Mimi?" the yellow dinosaur asked, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"What's the matter?" the taller boy with glasses sneered, "I thought you were having the time of your life?"

Without another word they drifted back into the darkness. In desperation Mimi turned to the only thing left between her and her attackers; the plant thing.

"Palmon!"

"I've gotta go now Mimi. Goodbye," the plant wheezed in response, voice tinged with sadness as it faded back into darkness like everything else.

Now completely alone, the girl turned towards her nightmarish foes. They loomed ever closer, arms reaching out to grab her, and right before they made contact she screamed.

Demyx visibly flinched. Zexion took this as his cue to stop the scary part.

The darkness vanished immediately, and the dream ended. The girl jolted upright in bed, quickly waking from the pseudo-nightmare. The room around her appeared to haze in a faint glow – simply to make her think she was still dreaming. Next to the bed stood another girl, an oddly dressed one with thick gloves, a yellow shirt with no sleeves and a strange blue helmet. Just like all the other figures, this was merely a reflection of what she was expecting to see. Dreams were wonderful like that. The mind was already used to supplying every piece of information the person would ever need. Zexion merely held up the mirror, so to speak.

He did, however, have to pull a few strings here and there. Dreams had a habit of going off on ever looping tangents that never ended without ever making any sense whatsoever. They were talking already, with Mimi murmuring "where am I?" and "what?" and other amazingly intelligent things. Zexion was aiming for something a little more direct here.

"Do you have any idea what that horrible dream was trying to tell you Mimi?"

Demyx snickered at that, but hey, it worked. Simplicity was effective.

"I'm sorry," Mimi was whimpering sleepily, "Oh, I really am!"

"Well then, you know what you have to do to make things right."

"Yes," was Mimi's simple response.

Zexion grinned to himself in a way that was possibly spurred by Demyx squeezing his shoulder softly. Well, they'd gotten what they came for. It was time to let her think the rest of it through. Zexion made the helmet girl smile and take the other girl's hand in hers reassuringly.

"Thatta girl. I knew you'd find yourself again."

With that, the 'dream' was over. Mimi slowly lowered herself back to her bed, the room around her faded back to its normal appearance. Demyx was smiling brightly. Even Zexion felt quite chuffed.

A sudden glow of green was all the warning he had. The girl sat up suddenly in bed, actually waking up this time, and Zexion's eyes jarred wide open. He jerked Demyx out of sight, quickly pulling him beyond the sight of the window and pushing him up against the wall.

"The Crest!" Mimi was saying to herself in surprise. Zexion wasn't quite sure what that meant, but the green glow swiftly faded from the window. "Sora?" the girl asked the empty room quietly. Of course, the empty room didn't answer back. There would be nothing in the room out of place at all.

... Except the balcony doorway. Zexion grimaced. Somehow, it stood half way open, with its curtains billowing in the breeze. With his hands still holding Demyx in place, Zexion felt Demyx shift nervously, clearly noticing the same thing.

Zexion gave him a withering look. Demyx went bright red, looking away quickly. If they hadn't been under the imminent threat of discovery, Zexion would have given him a very terse speech about the essence of 'stealth'. As it was, he would have to copy and paste it some other time.

Chancing a slight peek through the window, Zexion caught the sight of movement. He stayed very still, waiting for it to pass. The wait was a long one, leaving Zexion very aware of his hands still pressing on Demyx, yet he couldn't afford to move. Eventually, the movement passed out of sight. Zexion peeked around further just in time to see Mimi slipping out the door of the room, fully dressed in what he assumed was more casual attire. It was still more pink than he ever thought to see on any one person at a single time, yet it now came with a pink cowgirl hat. No wonder Demyx liked it here.

Zexion stepped back from Demyx then, finally allowing himself to relax.

"Well, now what?" he asked Demyx expectantly. He sorely hoped Demyx had planned more than just that.

He wasn't disappointed. With a menacing grin, Demyx wiggled his fingers, far closer to Zexion's face than he would have liked.

"Now," Demyx said in a mock-low voice, "We get turned into frogs."

Zexion searched his face eagerly, looking for the joke. Sadly, Demyx was quite serious.

Zexion sighed.

* * *

Things are building up here in Crazy Fic HQ. Can you feel the excitement building up? I sure hope so. Uh, unless you can actually FEEL the excitement, then you might want to see a doctor.

Great thanks go flying out to Becoafamu for being an amazing Beta once again. Thanks also goes to underthedarkness, who gave the fic a shot and even left a review. Aspire to be like these people folks, they are crazy awesome : )


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

They walked through the dungeons quickly, making their way to the only occupied cell in the entire complex. Demyx smiled eagerly to himself as they went. It was all going perfectly to plan. Mimi was assembling everyone in the concert room while Zexion and himself had managed to wriggle themselves into the task of rousing the prisoners.

Demyx looked across at Zexion. He was frowning to himself, as usual, the long hair hanging before his face swinging noticeably as they walked. To anyone else at all who looked, they would both appear to be Geckomon, easily half their height and... well, green, with tubas. Demyx had no idea how the mechanics of such an illusion worked, but he very much suspected that the answer was highly complex and involved mathematical apparatus, and so he very much vowed never to ask. Still though, it was entertaining to know that everything he did would be imitated by his illusional froggy counterpart. Only Zexion's frown kept him from dancing right there on the spot.

Zexion caught his eye then and Demyx smiled wide at him. The guy's frown lessened noticeably, and a faint blush seemed to creep up his cheeks before he looked away. Oh, what Demyx would've given to see a blushing Geckomon.

With a slight spring in his step, he walked a little closer to Zexion, matching his stride perfectly despite the height difference.

"Thanks again for all this." To his surprise, his voice came out with a distinctly wet sounding frog-like accent. He grinned wickedly, immediately wanting to test this out in more detail. Well, 'play around' with it really. Demyx didn't test things. He wasn't Vexen.

Zexion waved off his thanks, mumbling a distinctly frog sounding "Any time." Demyx mentally catalogued that so he could call Zexion up on that later. Singing in this voice was just all too tempting, and he was going to make sure Zexion let him do just that.

They reached the right cell in no time at all. Demyx straightened slightly and cleared his throat, trying his very best to seem the typical 'disgruntled prison guard' stereotype. He vaguely wondered if such a thing existed for frogs. Zexion would probably know, but this was hardly the time to ask. All Demyx knew was that this was really turning out to be the most entertaining mission ever. He made a mental note to get lost in the universe more often.

* * *

"Alright, wake up!"

Joe rubbed his eyes as he slowly sat up, automatically reaching out for his glasses as he did so. Surely it had only been bare moments since he'd finally managed to shut his eyes. It still felt too early for morning, as far as he could tell in the darkness of the dungeon. The stone floor certainly hadn't helped his allergies, and the lack of sleep made opening his eyes a strain. He blearily blinked at the intrusion, wondering why they couldn't have just left whatever it was till morning.

Two Geckomon stood next to their cell door, which was open. The two guards seemed impatient as they waited for everyone to blearily stumble into the realm of consciousness. One of them even seemed to be scowling. Gomamon was the last to wake, and there were no surprises there. The little guy used up so much energy in just being himself that he slept like a log at night.

There was something rather odd about the two guards, but Joe couldn't quite put his finger on what it was. The angry looking one kept whispering under his breath and smiling to himself before quickly regaining his scowl and glaring at nothing in particular. The other was watching him out of the corner of his eye, perhaps just as worried as Joe himself was. For a moment there the second Geckomon seemed to be holding a book, but it was gone before Joe had finished putting his glasses on. Maybe he was still dreaming after all.

Dreaming or not, the first Geckomon spoke again once everyone was on their feet. No-one looked any better than Joe himself felt. Tai was unsuccessfully trying to stifle a yawn, Agumon was rubbing his eyes, and Gomamon looked like he was going to fall asleep against Palmon's leg at any second. Nevertheless, the slightly crazy guard still spoke.

"The Princess wants you."

It didn't take them very long to be escorted around the back of the mansion, across the bridge, and into the smaller mansion that housed the sleeping Shogunmon.

"Is she gonna chop off our heads?"

"Don't even joke," Joe murmured back sleepily back at Tai. He would have found it a lot easier to stressfully worry about just what they were being led to if he hadn't been so exhausted. For once, it seemed he'd just have to leave it to Mimi – and that would have been a scary thought even under normal circumstances.

As they entered the building Joe was quickly surprised to find that the whole place was lit up, with the space before them filled with what must have been every Geckomon and Otammamon in the entire kingdom clumped in a noisy crowd before the stage, each one discussing what they thought was going on louder than the next. Even more surprising was the fact that Mimi was standing on stage – normal Mimi, in her normal outfit and normal pink hat – not looking at all happy with herself.

"What's she up to?" Joe unconsciously asked the air, only to find that Tai and the digimon had asked the very same thing, all at the exact same time no less. It was just plain weird when that happened. It probably had very serious implications that Joe just hadn't thought of yet, but he figured he'd have to put it out of mind until he could think clearly. Perhaps Izzy could explain it properly. Izzy seemed to have an answer to everything, even if no-one else really understood what he was saying.

Joe glanced down at Gomamon briefly. The small sea dog of a digimon was almost bouncing happily as it watched the stage, making small little excited sounds as it did so. There was no real way to describe the sounds that Gomamon made on a regular basis, not when his normal voice sounded like a mix between a kicked puppy and squeaky toy being stepped on- and he meant that in the best way possible, of course. Gomamon had come to the rescue any number of times since they'd all been brought to the Digital World, and he was remarkably brave for something so small. Even so, Joe wondered why he'd been landed with the loudest Digimon of all in a stark contrast to his own reserved and responsible approach to all things. Everyone else's digimon seemed to suit them. Palmon was as innocent and naive as Mimi was, Tentomon seemed to know just as much important sounding trivia as Izzy did, and Agumon was just as courageous and slightly lacking in the foresight department as Tai. Joe supposed one day he'd just have to admit that nothing here really made much sense at all, but that was a long way off yet.

It was only then that Joe noticed that their two guards weren't with them anymore. Then again, if they had joined the crowd of Geckomon, it'd be pretty much impossible to tell which ones they were even if he had all the time in the world. Not that it mattered much. Joe just had a habit of avoiding the clinically insane as often as possible. So far it generally seemed to be working, until Mimi had lost it and thrown them all in prison of course.

At the thought of Mimi, Joe snapped his eyes back up to the stage, unconsciously pushing his glasses up to see better. If Mimi really was back to her old self, well, then there really was nothing to worry about anymore. She could sing her song, and then they could high tail it out of here and go find the others. You know, at a more reasonable hour.

Joe's thoughts quieted themselves as Mimi walked up to the microphone and started to speak. The entire crowd fell silent immediately.

* * *

Mimi took the steps towards the microphone slowly – not out of any want to delay them, but out of knowing exactly what she had done to make it this far. She felt horrible.

She plucked her skirt unconsciously, as if trying to remind herself that she was back to normal now. Really, she didn't know what had come over her. How had she let things get so far out of hand? Not only had she taken advantage of an entire kingdom's generosity – no, their desperation – but she had done it with the pompous and selfish attitude that she usually resented in people. It was a miracle that she had had that dream when she did. That dream, and that surprise visit from Sora. She wasn't entirely sure whether Sora had really been there or not, but for the moment, it didn't really matter. She had to set things right.

If there was a time where she could have walked out of this, it was long gone. Mimi knew that, but it made no difference in the end. She had to do this now, she absolutely had to, especially after all the trouble she'd put everyone through.

With a grimace she looked out over the crowd. All the green and purple faces looking up at her in what must've been excitement, though it was really quite hard to tell with them all looking exactly the same. At the very back of the crowd were her friends – the people that had come to find her and the people she had treated the worse of all. Tai and Joe, standing tall above everyone else. Agumon and Gomamon, yellow and white in the sea of froggly green.

And Palmon, her digimon, and her closest friend.

Her throat caught slightly at the thought of that, at how she had carelessly tossed all her friends in prison, yelling at them in the process and storming off without a second thought. And yet, here they were, looking up at her as if they were finally looking at who she really was.

She knew what she had to do, and now was the time to do it.

Mimi started to speak.

"First of all there's something I have to say to everyone here." She paused slightly. It was easier now that she'd started, but she didn't dare stop. Mimi looked directly towards the back of the crowd. "Tai and Joe, Agumon and Gomamon." She paused again looking straight at her plant-like friend. "Palmon." She gulped. "All of you have been so nice. I'm so sorry."

Her voice broke off as she tried to hold back a sudden well of tears in the corners of her eyes. She bowed her head, trying her very best to show that she really meant what she was saying.

The crowd rippled with shock. A mass of taken aback faces stared back at her as she continued, still bowed over. She could hear her voice sounding higher pitched than usual, and cracking slightly at the emotion coursing through her, but she had to say it all now while she still could. It all flooded out of her in a rush.

"I've been such a little idiot. If you can find it in your hearts to forgive me, and I don't know why you would, but if you can, then I'd be honoured to sing for you, one more time."

Mimi straightened then, sniffing as she did so and ignoring the tears silently running down her cheeks. She looked desperately towards the back of the hall, towards her friends, to see what they would say.

They must have been the greatest friends she ever could have hoped for. Five faces beamed back at her amidst the ocean of now-happy smiles, all accepting and forgiving. Palmon stood out from the rest, the open grin on her face looking prouder than Mimi ever remembered seeing before.

"We forgive you!" Palmon called out happily, without even a second of hesitation. The geckomon echoed her.

"Of course we do! Sing your highness!"

Mimi just barely managed not to burst down in tears at hearing that. She whimpered, swallowing the hot lump that had formed in her throat with more than a little difficulty. She was crying and trembling in front of an entire kingdom, but she had never felt happier than she did at that moment. Things could finally go back to how they were.

"Thank you," Mimi said softly, gently rubbing her eyes. She smiled then, at everyone, but most of all at Palmon.

And now, she could finally do what she had promised to do so long ago.

She would sing her song.

* * *

Zexion cleared his throat, hiding himself behind the stone pillar and avidly refusing to look anywhere near Demyx.

"Oh, that poor girl!" Demyx wailed, freely peering out over the scene before them. At any other time, Zexion would have snapped at him to stop showing emotion, but his heart really wasn't in it at the moment. He almost choked at the irony in that, but he knew that if he opened his mouth right now, he would never again be able to say he did not have feelings.

Just what all that implied would have to wait till later. Right now, he was very carefully trying to rub something out of the corner of his eye without being seen.

"Zexion, are you crying?"

Zexion's hand froze. He was _not _crying. A coincidental itch in the corner of his eye did not imply crying, it most certainly did not! That was simply outrageous.

Luckily for him, something out in the open drew Demyx's attention away from him. Now that Mimi had composed herself once more the plant girl was happily calling out to Demyx – Demyx the Geckomon, as everyone else saw it.

"Hit the lights and cue the music!"

With a smile so bright Zexion almost did not believe it was real, Demyx rushed over to the panel on the wall to hit the appropriate buttons.

Or at least, that had been his intention. In his excitement Demyx's foot caught on a thick power cable and brought him crashing down to the floor, the cord popping out of the socket as he did so.

The room fell into darkness as the all lights simultaneously went out. Demyx winced as he scrambled to his hands and knees, desperately trying to shove the cord back into the wall.

"It's not going in!" Demyx hissed frantically at him. Zexion could hear the panic in his voice. If he screwed things up now, Zexion knew Demyx would never forgive himself, not after working so long for this.

It had only been mere seconds, and everyone in the crowd was staring up at Mimi in anticipation. No-one had noticed that anything had gone wrong yet, they all expected the lights going out to be completely normal. There was still time to fix it.

"Get your sitar!" Zexion hissed at Demyx. He quickly snatched the power cord off him before he managed to destroy the socket completely.

If Demyx had been just any old person, it would have been an absolutely horrible suggestion to play an instrument in replacement of the normal sound system that everyone present was used to. But this was Demyx. There wasn't anything 'any old' about him. Zexion knew full well that Demyx could summon up just about any type of sound he wanted to with that fascinating sitar of his, and he could do it in the blink of an eye. He had done it any number of times, replicating the sound of full blown symphonies and cheering crowds even in the midst of battle. The physics of this were elusive, but when Demyx could make geysers of water burst out of absolutely nowhere, one quickly learned not to expect the normal rules to apply when he was present.

As if countering his thoughts, Zexion glanced at the cord to find that it had simply been upside down. He frowned, but he had to admit, even the most brilliantly talented people could make easy mistakes- even if the person was Demyx, and they seemed to have more mistakes than talent most of the time.

Zexion easily placed the cord back into the wall socket at the very same second that Demyx hefted up his sitar and started to play.

The spot lights suddenly shone around Mimi, and the steady karaoke-style beat that everyone had been waiting for sprang out of the walls. Demyx played his sitar with a pleased grin on his face – not that Demyx ever really went without his grin for too long, but there was the definite air of him being pleased with his own handiwork. Zexion leant back against the wall to listen as the former princess finally began to sing.

It was stunning really, beyond what words could describe – and Zexion should know, he was a master of literature of every kind. But the voice was so ... so sweet, and captivating. There really was no way to give it justice with a simple description. Reading just truly was not the same as hearing. Nevertheless, Zexion thought he could finally see what the Geckomon had all been waiting for.

_I wanna sing a song_

_A song to bring shogunmon arou-ou-ound_

_When he hears my voice_

_I hope he likes the sound_

_He has to listeeeeen_

Behind Mimi, the massive form of Shogunmon twitched in the darkness. The gigantic tail started to rise slowly in the air.

_Listen to my sincere heaaart_

_I've learned that friends are friends even when they're apart_

_I've asked my friends to forgive me from the bottom of my heeeeaaart_

The crowd was moving in time with Mimi's elegant singing, her friends at the back moving their arms and smiling contently. The Geckomon were staring with pure adoration and wonder as Shogunmon's tail raised as high as it seemed it could go.

_If it's my choice his eyes will open wiiide_

_And the Geckomon will be cheering,_

_Cheering with pride-_

A deep grunt echoed broke through the song and echoed throughout the hall.


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter - 7**

Mimi's voice cut off abruptly, just as Demyx's hands froze on his sitar, stopping all sound in its tracks.

In the sudden burst of silence, the humungous red toad shook the room as it rose to its feet. Worried voices murmured and shouted as Shogunmon turned around, scowling with a look that could only be called disgruntled. Its face was far from pleasant to look at, but his sneer made it downright frightfully ugly.

Demyx gulped. It did not look happy to be woken up, oh no, it most certainly did not.

One of the Geckomon called out over the fearful shouts.

"Don't panic! It's out lord and master Shogunmon, finally restored to us after many centuries."

For once, the high pitched squeal of the Geckomon's voice held no humour for Demyx. Almost immediately after it spoke the hulking mass of toad spoke over it, its low voice a deep trembling bass.

"I was having such a nice sleep," it boomed, looming over the crowd before him -now looking absolutely tiny by comparison. "Which one of you clowns woke me up? Or should I just squish all of ya?"

True to his word, Shogunmon lifted his tremendous foot before him and brought it down towards the crowd. In shrieks of pure terror the crowd scattered in all directions, fleeing for their lives and desperately trying to escape their 'beloved lord and master'. Mimi had been closest to the menace, but she managed to escape his foot fall by just a few feet. Even as the ground trembled she was up and running along with everyone else.

Shogunmon rampaged, punching and kicking holes in the solid brick walls all around them. There didn't seem to be any cause for this as Demyx saw it. No-one was anywhere near the walls that he made crumble as easy as Demyx might punch through a sheet of paper. Whoever this Shogunmon really was, he threw the worst temper tantrum Demyx had ever encountered in _any _universe.

Against the rules or not, Demyx was not going to stand idly by and let all the people he had only just met be squashed by _that. _

Hefting his sitar, Demyx rushed forward to help, but before he could take two steps a firm grip on his arm pulled him back.

"No Demyx! We can't help them. They can take of themselves."

"But they-"

He had no chance to argue. As Shogunmon punched through another wall a large clump of rubble came falling straight towards them. Demyx yanked Zexion to the side as hard as he could.

It turned out that free-flying boulder would have missed them by miles in any case, but the sudden crash had distracted Zexion enough to let Demyx break free of his grip. Grabbing his sitar once more, Demyx

rushed forward, only to be stopped in his tracks by the figure standing before him – a figure that he would have recognised in any world no matter what form it took. A figure so creepily repulsive that the world seemed to stop around Demyx as he looked on in disbelief.

Vexen.

Demyx could have sworn at any time during the performance that Vexen had not been there, he would have bet anything on it, but there he was, standing directly in front of him with that knowledgeable grin across his gaunt face. He seemed immune to the thundering toad quaking the ground as it stomped angrily around behind him. Vexen only had eyes for Demyx – and Zexion it seemed, as Zexion walked up and took his place at Demyx's side.

"Now, just what are you two doing?"

* * *

Zexion bit off a curse. Of course, he had forgotten the need for haste as soon as he'd reached Demyx. And now it was all for naught, Vexen had found them.

"Meddling? In the affairs of other worlds? Why, that's just deplorable."

Demyx visibly flinched.

Zexion's mind raced, yet all answers pointed to a very simple solution. He held out his hand.

In a flash of light, he held his lexicon, propped open at the exact intended page. Demyx was gaping, as if unsure whether holding his sitar counted as him being armed as well.

"I have a proposition for you, Number IV." Zexion spoke calmly, yet he felt the opposite on the inside. Much rested on this. "A contest, if you will, for the rights to study this world."

Vexen watched him with consideration, his face with that weird look where one eye looked bigger than the other. It was a gamble pure and simple. Vexen held the authority in the decision already, and all he had to do was wave it in his face to get Zexion and Demyx both carted out of here without another word. Vexen knew this, and yet he was hesitating. Zexion could almost hear the thoughts running through his head. Zexion had been caught directly defying orders, yet what would make him willing to openly risk that in order to study this world? Vexen would have to assume Zexion knew something too valuable to hand over, something so crucial that he wanted all the credit for it. In reality all Zexion had was a few unstudied assumptions, but the possibility was surely too much for Vexen to ignore.

Then Vexen smiled, and Zexion knew his bluff had worked. There was another flash of light, and Vexen's icy shield quickly materialised in hand. The air seemed immediately colder. With an almost disturbingly scientific laugh, the scientist spoke.

"Accepted."

Everything exploded into action.

* * *

Demyx's first instinct was to run for his life, but the suddenness of the action pushed all thoughts out of his mind as he simply stared on in disbelief.

Vexen sprang off the ground, hovering easily several feet of the ground with a hand raised towards them both. The wind howled around them, making their coats flutter wildly, and chilling Demyx to the bone. Ice quickly spread across the floor around them, instantly freezing the solid stone. Demyx was too stunned to move, but Zexion took a step forward, his eyes focussed on Vexen as if nothing abnormal was happening at all. He lifted his lexicon up before him, throwing one hand forcefully out towards Vexen.

At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then a mad flapping noise accompanied the whistling of the wind, like the sound of a thousand sheets of paper being blown by an open window. Demyx was not far wrong. Within seconds dozens upon dozens of sheets of paper whipped themselves out of Zexion's open book and flapped through the wind in a hundred different directions, filling the air with an intense tornado of deadly literature.

It was all Demyx could do to not gape in wonder. One moment he had been quite happily playing his sitar. The next, Vexen and Zexion spontaneously decide to start a fight while a giant frog starts smashing the walls of his own mansion to pieces. In a split second of lucidity, Demyx spotted the crowd of frogs and children running across the hallway, completely engrossed in dodging the rampaging giant. Demyx wanted to help them. It was largely his fault that Shogunmon had woken up at all, and now they might all die because of it. He wanted to help, but between the sheer force of the gusting paper twister and the thick chunks of ice being torn from the floor, Demyx could do naught but hold his arms in front of his face while his coat threatened to tear itself right off. It was madness.

Between one heartbeat and the next the howling wind died as every single page froze in mid-air, simply hanging motionlessly wherever they happened to be. The silence was a blessing, but a glance at Vexen was all it took to see that the danger was far from over.

Vexen was smiling.

The frozen minefield of pages lurched inward, all slicing through the air towards Demyx and Zexion. Before Demyx could even flinch, Zexion made some vague arm movement. The world was engulfed in darkness for the briefest of seconds. Demyx blinked, and the world was back, but the pages were nowhere to be seen. The brief few seconds of peril were over.

Zexion stepped forward, swirling his free hand around as vague blobs of darkness sprang out the air and spiralled towards Vexen.

Demyx tore his eyes away before he saw Vexen's counterattack. Everything had rushed through in a mere matter of seconds so far, and he did not want to get pulled into that fight. Demyx was sorely looking for some kind of opening where he could slip around out of sight, but between the falling ceiling and deflected boulders of ice flying through the air, he was effectively trapped. Stuck between two geniuses with a grudge against each other. It was like chess all over again, yet with a much higher chance of extremely painful death. Not that chess had been exactly safe in the first place, Demyx had almost died of boredom.

Throwing his hands up over his head, Demyx made a run for it. If he could just make it to the group of kids he might be able to get them all out of here safely. Yet even as Demyx looked up to try catch sight of them, Vexen was hovering in the air before him, calmly hefting his shield and grinning for all he was worth. It was infuriating.

Vexen let out a mad and frankly quite disturbing chuckle as ice crystals spiralled through the air around him. They met just above his hand as he lifted it into the air. In a flash of light, an impressively sharp looking icicle jutted out of the air, and in a simple toss it flew at Demyx with phenomenal speed. It had managed to cover half the distance between them before Demyx even knew what was happening. He opened his mouth to scream when a book spiralled out of nowhere, colliding with the icicle and completely shattering it to pieces.

Demyx was relieved. In a second, Zexion was by his side once more. Vexen floated gently down from the air and landed before them, grinning madly. It wasn't hard to see why. Vexen was in complete control. Zexion was on full defensive and was only just managing to hold him back. They wouldn't last much longer at this rate.

Still, Demyx's eyes caught the sight of the menacing giant toad running across the hall in the background. Vexen noticed and laughed.

"Don't worry, you won't miss anything. She's practically powerless without _this._"

Vexen rather calmly held out a small locket on a fine golden chain. In the middle was a small green section with a curvy symbol etched into it.

Demyx had absolutely no idea what it was.

"What's that?"

"Her crest," Vexen said simply.

Demyx stared at Vexen like he was a crazy person. He turned to Zexion, but his words failed when he saw Zexion staring at the thing intently. Clearly he'd seen it before. But then, Demyx should have as well. Shouldn't he have? He racked his brain but he couldn't think of anything even remotely related to sparkly jewellery. Just what was Vexen trying to pull?

"-it's a simple matter really," Vexen said, finishing a ramble that Demyx had luckily zoned out of, "Once I obtain her other device, the secrets of this world will be mine!"

"Not if I can help it."

Demyx simply watched as Zexion took action once more. Demyx was getting real tired of this. He spun around and ran. He almost fell on the second step as something tried to snag his foot. On the third step his legs refused to move. He tried again. They didn't budge. Demyx looked down in horror to see his legs completely encased in ice. Vexen was not allowing him to leave.

The battle between the other two Organization members conveniently detoured into Demyx's line of sight just then. Vexen was still on the offensive. Apparently his shield served as an all-purpose offensive weapon. He slashed it back and forth, moving closer and closer to Zexion, who was left with no choice but to jump back gracefully from each slash. Well, 'gracefully' wasn't quite the word for it. It was more of a panicked stumble of sheer desperation, but Demyx's way sounded far nicer. Eventually Zexion was backed up against the wall, his eyes searching desperately for where to flee next. Without hesitation Vexen struck, driving his spiked shield straight towards Zexion's stomach.

It would have hit too, if Zexion had been there. Instead Vexen's shield struck straight through the image of Zexion, which flickered and split into two very solid looking apparitions.

Now confronted with a double vision of his enemy, Vexen snarled and whirled around to find the real thing. Unfortunately for him, he sorely underestimated how pissed off illusions were after being stabbed in the gut. As one, the twin Zexion's threw both their hands forward. Two lexicons shot forward, black spines spinning wildly before simultaneously colliding with Vexen's exposed back.

The scientist stumbled forward, cursing something Demyx had never heard before as he spun around to face the twin illusions once more. He cried in fury as they merely flipped their spiked hair in unison and vanished.

Then Zexion was in front of Demyx – the real Zexion this time, or at least Demyx assumed. In one smooth motion he struck the ice with his thick book, swinging with both hands and grunting as the book bounced straight back off it. Apparently the damage had been enough, for the ice seemed to crack beneath Demyx's feet. He didn't even have time to squeal before the entire thing shattered, sending him falling to the ground in a miserable heap.

Vexen ran at him then, but once again Zexion struck from a distance, sending Vexen falling to the floor. If Demyx had been getting tired of this before, now he was exhausted. Combat was not his forte, and he most definitely did not excel in the field of "being used as Vexen bait." If Zexion wanted to fight Vexen, then let him fight Vexen, Demyx had better things to do.

He scrambled to his feet and ran in the direction of Shogunmon – which was quite easy really, considering how much space he took up. He had just enough time to see him shoot a giant blast of air at the wall before a portion of the ceiling collapsed directly above the former princess.

"MIMI!"

Demyx had no idea what happened next, but Palmon rushed forward and ... glowed. Her whiny voice tore through the air.

_Palmon digivolves to TOGEMON! _

Where Palmon had been a split second ago, there was now a tremendous sized green thing that promptly punched away the falling ceiling, effectively saving Mimi. 'Punched' was definitely the right word, as the ... _thing_seemed very much to be a giant cactus with boxing gloves. Demyx wasn't quite sure what to think, but 'what the hell' was right up there with 'does that cactus have a face?' and 'this place is nuts, even for me.'

"That was a close one!" the cactus grumbled deeply, in a somehow feminine voice.

The two hugged – or rather, Mimi hugged the cactus' gloved hand, but it had all the trappings of a touching moment. They were merely twenty paces away. Demyx raised his hand to warn them that the psychotically murderous rampaging giant toad was, in fact, still psychotically on a murderous rampage – but even as he opened his mouth Vexen was before him, between him and his target once again. This was really getting old. Like Vexen. Demyx couldn't help but grin at another brilliant pun.

The smile didn't last long as Vexen tossed a head sized chunk of ice at him, in the same manner as one would a baseball.

In that split second, Demyx had a pure stroke of genius.

As the ice careened towards him, Demyx twisted and spun, pulling his sitar through the air as hard as he could. With an arm shaking _thunk _the ice ball collided with his sitar, immediately being thrown back the way it came.

As if all the luck in the world had been frozen into that instant, the ice ball shot directly back towards Vexen, shattering to pieces as it did so. The very center of the ice kept flying, hitting Vexen directly in the forehead with such speed Demyx was unsure whether any of it had really happened at all. But sure enough, Vexen's eyes quickly glazed over as his knees buckled, sending his black coated form sprawling across the floor.

Demyx gaped.

He looked at Zexion, who merely looked back at him, as if equally unsure whether that had just happened or not. Demyx felt like laughing. Or whimpering. Or both.

He decided on a whoop of excitement and rushed past the limp form of Vexen, finally free to interfere with the other battle.

To his great disappointment, the battle was already almost over. Shogunmon was staring in disbelief out through the crater he had just made in the wall. Confronting him from way down over on the beach were a humongous orange dinosaur with some kind of brown battle helmet fused into its head, as well as some kind of equally as large furry-mammoth-slash-walrus-thing, complete with tusks, white fur and a glistening black horn. Next to all that, Demyx's sitar felt like a toothpick.

It was then that Demyx realised that everyone else – sans Mimi and her cactus– was down on the beach next to these monstrosities. How they'd gotten down there, Demyx had no idea.

"See?" Zexion said softly, walking up to stand beside Demyx. "Those kids can take of themselves. They _live _here, remember?"

With a grimace, Demyx nodded. As much as it pained him to admit it, it looked like he wasn't going to be the hero in the eyes of any new friends today after all.

With a roar, Shogunmon threw himself out the hole in the wall, careening massively through the air towards the beach.

"This would be the part where the sincere hearted girl makes up for her past mistakes by saving the day, wouldn't it?" Zexion mused.

Demyx would have thought so too, but apparently that was not to be the case. In a golden-red flash of light, the dinosaur on the beach was somehow all of a sudden part robot and much bigger than before. Before the flying Shogunmon could even change his expression, the dinosaur's chest shot open and two of the strangest looking missiles Demyx had ever seen flew straight towards Shogunmon.

"... Ah, I guess not."

The gargantuan toad had just about enough time to look shocked before the world around him exploded. Grey smoke was everywhere, billowing and engulfing everything in sight as the building around them seemed to shake.

No, there was nothing 'seemingly' about it. The building was falling down.


	8. Chapter 8

Last chapter people!

Mega thanks go to Becoafamu, again, for being a wonderful beta and catching all the crazy spelling that almost slips through. Thanks also goes to underthedarkness, also again, for reviewing like an awesome person. Reviewing is such a nice thing to do (hint hint). Either way, enjoy the conclusion!

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**Chapter 8**

All things considered, a collapsing building wasn't exactly the most life threatening thing Demyx had faced that day. With Mimi and her giant cactus friend down on the beach with everyone else – which Demyx didn't remember seeing, but he supposed it could have happened at anytime during the explosion – all he had to do was summon a portal of darkness and simply step outside. What he wasn't expecting was that as he went to do so, Zexion had insisted that they take Vexen along with them.

Demyx had all but forgotten about the scientist. He wouldn't have minded too much if Vexen had 'mysteriously gone missing,' but one look at Zexion's face was enough to see that he wasn't going to take no for an answer. A pity really. It would've been nice to have breakfast one morning without being entirely creeped out of his mind. Chuckling madly into one's cereal was quite possibly one of the most unattractive things anyone ever did at The Castle That Never Was, and that was really saying something. But Demyx had heard it all before, all the reasons concerning the 'clone program' and 'heart research' and 'hall monitoring', so he didn't complain.

Together they managed to drag Vexen's unconscious body into the portal without much difficulty and with plenty of time to spare. The building eventually collapsed in on itself with Demyx watching from a short distance away. It was incredibly noisy, really, with plumes of smoke and chunks of masonry falling all over the place, but still rather entertaining to watch. At the end of it there was a sizable hill of broken walls and rooftops with the tail of the 'honourable lord and master' Shogunmon sticking out the top. It was lucky the Geckomon still had their main mansion to live in, otherwise they would've been rather... well, screwed.

To Demyx's glee, the gathering of children and monsters had moved up to examine the wreckage just like he had, so he snuck a bit closer to do some expert 'eavesdropping'. The sneaking probably wasn't exactly necessary, not with his coat making him as precisely forgettable as he was, but it just didn't feel right to stand around in the middle of a group conversation when no-one could actually see you.

Apparently the mood was a rather light one. The children were all happily laughing and discussing what to do next. From the sounds of it, it was pretty much guaranteed that they would just continue their journey to search for the rest of their friends with no harm done. Seriously, if these kids had a reputation for setting up dysfunctional monarchies, destroying entire mansions and then just leaving without a word it was no wonder their friends were off hiding somewhere. To Demyx's great surprise, the Geckomon were laughing right along with the children, and from the looks of it were completely unconcerned with the mass destruction of their property, live burial of their murderous ruler and complete loss of their life purpose. Once again, this was insanely appealing to Demyx. This was quite possibly the happiest place in the entire universe.

Demyx nearly jumped out of his skin when he felt something grab his shoulder. He whirled around in a panic only to find Zexion giving him a deprecating look and motioning for him to follow him back to where Vexen had been haphazardly dumped on the ground. With one last look over his shoulder at the departing group of children and monsters, Demyx fell in beside Zexion.

Their short walk was a silent one. After so much excitement Demyx could hardly think up anything interesting to say. He instead busied himself with looking out across the view of the ocean, now that the cliff-side mansion wasn't as 'looming in the foreground' as it once was, being a pile of rubble and all. Thankfully Zexion broke the silence once they reached Vexen's corp- erm, unconscious body.

"Are you ready to go?"

Demyx immediately opened his mouth to argue. Then it hit him that he had run out of things to do here. The frog had been awakened, the friends had been united, and everyone was happily off to do whatever it was that they usually did. It all felt slightly anti-climatic to Demyx. There had been no heartfelt goodbyes and not a single 'thank you for all your help'. On top of that, he would probably be lucky if they remembered him whatsoever at the end of the day. All in all, it wasn't exactly the preferred way to end his day of helping people. He'd heard the saying that you helped people for their benefit and not your own, but screw that, Demyx wanted the gratitude! Where was _his _happy ending? Perhaps he'd try it again with a different world and see if _those_ people knew how to show proper respect for completely unwanted help.

Demyx then realised that he had completely failed to answer Zexion's question in any way whatsoever. He looked to the other Organization member to find him frowning at Vexen, clearly deep in thought.

With a gleeful smirk, Demyx figured it was the perfect time for revenge. He silently got behind Zexion and grabbed his shoulder, completely expecting him to jump like Demyx himself had. Unfortunately Zexion was completely unaffected by Demyx's ingenious plan. He even seemed to blush a little. Today was just not Demyx's day.

Completely refusing to look like an idiot who had just failed to sneak up on the one person in this world that could actually see him, Demyx quickly threw out the first words that came to mind.

"So, uh, crazy little things huh? Who knew they could change shape like that."

Demyx sorely hoped Zexion knew what he was meaning. He hated looking like an idiot in front of someone so smart, he really _really_ did. He was just about to clarify that he indeed meant the 'crazy little monsters that followed those weirdly dressed kids around' when Zexion nodded as if he had been thinking the exact same thing.

"I believe it's called 'digivolution'. The mechanics of it elude me for the moment, but the potential power for it is astounding."

Then Zexion bent down and was taking something out of Vexen's hand. It took Demyx a moment to recognise it. It was the little shiny locket Vexen had been taunting them with mid-battle. Demyx still had no clue what the hell it was. He asked as such.

"It belongs to that - uh, it belongs to Mimi," Zexion explained. "It has some link to the level of power Palmon can access, but it requires the strength of Mimi's heart to activate it."

Demyx scratched his chin at that. So there really was a lot more to these kids than met the eye. Shapeshifting monsters whose power was directly linked to the heart? No wonder Vexen was so eager to stick his nose in this world. This was right up his alley. Then something occurred to Demyx.

"Um, are you going to give it back to her?"

For a short moment Zexion hesitated. Then he caught Demyx's eye, shifted his weight from one foot to the other and folded his arms.

"Of course. I'll replace it without her even knowing it was gone." Demyx could just about hear the words he didn't say, '_right after I run some tests on it first.' _It was good enough for Demyx either way. Mimi got her all powerful trinket back and all went back to the way it was before Demyx had tried to save the day. You know, ignoring the possibly dead giant frog and the completely destroyed house. He was just glad this place didn't have lawyers.

With a partially bored grunt, Demyx swung his arms around. His adventure may be over, but perhaps there was one last glimpse of awesome he could get before they left.

His gaze fell upon Vexen. He felt his foot twitch. He smiled.

It was brilliant, of course. Vexen would never even know. He lifted his leg.

"Don't even think about it."

Demyx spun around, face aghast.

"Oh come _on _Zexion! Just one kick! That's all!"

"The answer is no Demyx," Zexion said firmly, without even the slightest twinge of a sense of humour.

"But he's a pri-"

"-senior member of the Organization, and you will respect him as such."

"Pfft."

Demyx folded his arms and wrinkled his nose. Zexion was no fun, no fun at all. As Zexion turned away to open a portal of darkness Demyx stuck his tongue out at his back.

"I can still see you."

Demyx threw up his hands. "You know what? You suck. I'm going home."

It was under these circumstances that Demyx stomped off through the summoned portal and walked in on one of the most curious things he'd seen all day. Or perhaps, it would have been if he had just spent a day on any other world at all. As things were though, singing murderous frogs were _just _a little stranger. Even so, it was pretty darn strange.

Demyx had, in fact, walked straight into Vexen's laboratory. The sudden transition from a bright and colourful world to such blinding white walls made him squint, but his eyes still caught on pretty much the last person he had expected to be anywhere near a science experiment. There was Xigbar, complete with eye patch and long grey-streaked ponytail.

The strange part was that he was for some reason completely lacking any clothing whatsoever

He was standing behind one of the taller desks, so Demyx luckily couldn't see anything particularly scarring, but the simple fact that he had walked in on Xigbar completely and utterly naked brought an immediate myriad of questions blazing across his mind. Even worse, Xigbar hadn't heard him enter, so he continued rather busily pressing buttons on a big expensive looking piece of machinery. Demyx had absolutely no idea how to break it to the guy that he'd just snapped whatever dirty deeds he was doing, so he opted to remain silent.

Zexion stepped out of the darkness and appeared next to Demyx then, holding up the unconscious form of Vexen with one arm slung around his shoulders. Demyx could not remember being so pleased to have anyone else around ever. Zexion quickly saw the problem and cleared his throat, in that precise tone that just screamed _excuse me what do you think you are doing?_

Xigbar's back stiffened then. He turned around and saw them, but otherwise remained completely still. Apparently he didn't even have the modesty to cover up any choice pieces of his anatomy. He just stood there, looking shocked, and rather obviously trying to think up a plausible excuse for just what was going down. Demyx was looking forward to hearing whatever he came up with, because he had absolutely no idea what he would be trying to do.

...Hair removal, perhaps?

It took a great amount of effort to keep his eyes trained exactly on Xigbar's face and nowhere else. Apparently this guy's scars weren't just facial ones- but no, his face. Yes, his face. He wasn't even blushing. Was he naked in front of people like this often?

Thankfully, Zexion broke the silence once again. Demyx was ready to kiss the guy for saving him from such an awkward thought cycle.

"I specifically remember Vexen _declining_ your ideas for the cloning programme, Number II. You don't have the authority to clone yourself." Wait, what?

Darkness domed around Xigbar. For a second Demyx thought he was teleport-fleeing away, but no, the darkness disappeared just as fast as it appeared, leaving Xigbar just where he was but now wearing his Organization cloak. Demyx would have kissed the darkness as well - you know, if that were physically possible. He would've considered kissing the waist high desks in the room too, for keeping things out of sight, but who knew which ones Xigbar had touched while he was naked? Demyx instinctively took a step away from the nearest bench.

"If I remember correctly," Xigbar was saying smarmily, "I have the highest rank here. Which means I'm in charge here. You know?" Xigbar was smirking. Pulling the rank card almost seemed like a low blow to Demyx. It wasn't actually possible to outrank Xigbar without being Xemnas himself. It was practically cheating.

"Oh, were you wanting the order to come from the Superior instead?"

Zexion was handling it a lot better than Demyx thought he could have. He opted to continue his lengthy silence and hope that he could slip out before anyone noticed he had even been there at all. He took a tentative step towards the doorway.

Xigbar's head abruptly swivelled around to look at the other side of the laboratory. Demyx peeked over to see what he was looking at, but there was no-one there.

"You wouldn't dare," Xigbar was saying slowly. To the empty side of the room. Then his eyes widened and he took a step back, before summoning his guns in a flash. "Why you- You need to be taught a lesson!"

"Then bring it!"

Demyx almost squealed. The voice had spoken in his ... well, voice, but he hadn't spoken at all. He opened his mouth to say such, but no sound came out. On the verge of panic he looked around, his gaze falling on Zexion. It was only then that he realised how remarkably calm the shorter man was, and that he had his hand out towards Xigbar. Following that, Demyx glanced at Xigbar. It all made sense then.

Something else must've happened in whatever illusion he was seeing, for Xigbar suddenly dove to the side in a crash, rolling out of the way of some imagined attack and lurched forward into a run.

"Get back here!"

Then he ran out of the room and was gone.

Demyx turned back to Zexion, making an effort to lower his eyebrows as he did so. Zexion was looking remarkably calm really, much calmer than Vexen sprawled out on the floor like a discarded rag.

He made a mental note to never, _ever _piss Zexion off.

"How long are you gonna leave him doing that?"

Zexion flipped his hair.

"Oh, until he figures it out. It may take a while, but I feel it's justified."

"Huh." Demyx folded his arms, looking Zexion up and down as if seeing him for the first time. "You know, you're a lot more fun than I give you credit for."

"I know."

Demyx didn't see the self gratuitous smile sitting plainly on Zexion's lips, due to the hair and all, but he hardly needed to. If anything else, Demyx had discovered a new pastime that he was hardly going to let die out anytime soon.

"So, about them Tuba frogs."


End file.
